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Topic: Rebuy's (Read 19318 times)

If you're playing a doubles tournament (which we do every now and then) you might want to think about running the first 4 or 6 levels as a limit game. This gives both partners a chance to play some poker without the risk of getting knocked out (unless of course both play too fast and loose). Then switch to no-limit for the remaining rounds.

Kind of a goofy set up, but it is a couples tourney and I don't want somebody to have to go home after 15 minutes (and/or have to wait for their significant other to bust out). It is T2000 buy-in. We allow 1 rebuy (if busted) OR 1 add-on (if <T1000 chips). Rebuy or add-on has to occur by finish of 4th round.

So, we have one rebuy - but it is a reduced rebuy for a reduced amount of chips - T1500 for rebuy for 75% of the buy in cost. This kinda-helps people being reckless because they won't be back to full stack.

Then, if you haven't busted out and have <T1000 you can add-on (if you didn't do a rebuy), but the add-on is only T1000 and is for 50% of buy-in price. In effect, I try to allow all people to have near buy-in stack towards the end of 4th round.

Doesn't always work well, sometimes people end up with a bit over T1000 near end of 4th round and get kind of reckless trying to either win a pot or fall less than T1000.

I am kind of preferring not to allow anyone to add-on who hasn't done a rebuy, because then everybody would and it would just prolong the tourney.

It is kind of a friendly game, so I am trying to keep people in for about 1.5 hours, then finish up by about 2.5 - 3 hours so that spouses can go home together.

I recently played on a table with add-ons, I saw it as a waste of time.The interval came and understandably the short stacked players added on, then it was like domino rally, ended up everybody added on.What a waste of time why not double the entrance fee and double the chips.Re-buys I can live with but not add ons.I think you have to be carefull with re buys, a player entering a tournamentwill look at the most that he could loose, that being the entrance plus the re buys.In some cases that amount might be to much for some people, then it startsto make the players with the most money the favorites, I think one reason why pokerhas grown so big over here in the UK is that once your at the table with your chips, you areon a equal footing with everybody else.Three card brag was very popular over here, but in most cases the one with the most money usually won.

Using this single re-buy OR single add-on system has now worked quite well over the span of many couples type social tourneys.

Remember, I don't allow an add-on unless you have less than T1000 in chips (starting stack is T2000). Well, now I have actually changed it to not allow an add-on unless you have less than T1250 chips.

So, there are actually very few people who end up taking advantage of the add-on. Players understand that they can get more chips if they go all-in and have to rebuy, so people with low chip stacks don't ever add-on until the end of the 4th round. Anyone with very low chips stacks is just going to risk all his/her chips towards the end of the rebuy period rather than do an add-on.

So there are 3 sets of players towards the end of the rebuy period;

1. Those with >1250 chips (can't rebuy, can't add-on)2. Those hovering around 1000- 1250 chips, usually try to either hang on or maybe fall just below 1250 before the rebuy period - not always easy to accomplish. This group doesn't want to get reckless towards the end of the rebuy period, because if they go all, in they will have to pay again, just to get back to the same place.3. Those with say 750 chips and below, who will play a bit more aggressive, or go all-in if chips stack dwindles further. Again, they might not be super aggressive with 750 chips, because they could just add-on and end up with 1750, rather than pay a larger amount and rebuy to get to 1500 chips.

So, while I only have 4 tourneys loaded on this computer that I am sitting at, I think it is representative of some 20 tourneys of between 11-20 people per tourney (mostly around 18). In these 4 tourneys there are only an average of 3 rebuys and 2 add-ons per tourney.

But again, my intention with my structure and the rebuy add-on system is to keep most people in the tourney for at least 2 hours and then to finish up by about 4 hours since they are mostly tourneys with couples and I don't want one of the spouses to have to hang around forever waiting for their spouse and not playing.

I am getting to be pretty happy with how it is working out since it almost always works out that no one totally busts out during the first 2-2.5 hours and the tourneys are lasting 4-5 hours.

the 5 - 10 are the Blinds, the 10 - 20 part is the Min bet entered in the stakes area of the rounds setup.

Some of the players we have are new to the game and keep asking what they can bet and when.So on my main screen it shows the blinds 5 for small, 10 for big and then below that it shows the Min bet for the Flop (10) and then the Min bet after the turn card is out (20). I also changed it from saying Stakes to saying BETS so they understand it better.

Here is my main screen.If you have any questions, fire away. I would be glad to help.